Some Glimpses of Occultism by C.W. Leadbeater Some Glimpses of Occultism Ancient and Modern by C.W. Leadbeater Published in the 1900's CHAPTER I Introductory ANCIENT CHAPTER II Theosophy and Christianity The Three Great Truths How Divergence Arises Reincarnation The Three Hypotheses The Law of Cause and Effect The Inner Teaching References to It The Kingdom of Heaven The Road that Leads to Life The Difficulties of the Rich St. Paul the Initiate The Three Stages of the Church St. Clement of Alexandria What Origen Says Theosophy Explains The Gospel of Theosophy Page 1 Some Glimpses of Occultism by C.W. Leadbeater CHAPTER III The Ancient Mysteries The Mysteries of Eleusis The Methods of the Monk What the Mysteries Were The Lesser Mysteries The Greater Mysteries The Symbols Employed The Pythagorean School The Egyptian Mysteries CHAPTER IV Buddhism The Life of the Founder His Teaching The Four Noble Truths The Order of the Yellow Robe The Life of the Monk Nirvana The Practical Result Buddhism in Burma The Offering in the Temple The Three Guides The Five Precepts The Chanting of the Blessing The Two Churches Materialistic Tendencies The Permanent Ego Theosophy and the Religions The Theosophical Standpoint The Dhammapada Page 2 Some Glimpses of Occultism by C.W. Leadbeater MODERN CHAPTER V The Unseen World States of Matter The Ultimate Atoms Planes of Subtler Matter The Higher Senses The Gamut of Vibrations Table of Vibrations Extension of Faculty Dr. Baraduc’s Experiments Our Wider Powers The Truth About the Unseen The Heaven Life Each has his Reward Interpenetration Reason and Common-sense CHAPTER VI The Rationale of Mesmerism The Experiments of Reichenbach Invincible Ignorance The Nature of Sensitiveness The Nervous Circulation What the Mesmerist Gives Magnetic Sympathy The Phenomena A Word of Caution Page 3 Some Glimpses of Occultism by C.W. Leadbeater CHAPTER VII Telepathy and Mind-Cure How We Think Three Types of Telepathy Mind-Cure Some Objections to It The Power of Thought How Men Are Cured Types of Disease A Great Healing Principle CHAPTER VIII Magic: White and Black The Unrecognized Forces of Nature Nature-Spirits The Magic of Command Four Types of Magicians Three Types of Force Magic in Religion Talismans Charms or Mantrams Invocatory Magic Evil Invocations The Darker Magic Petty Magic How Evil May Be Resisted CHAPTER IX The Use and Abuse of Psychic Powers The Trained and the Untrained Studies Not Definitely Psychic Mesmerism and Mind-Cure Page 4 Some Glimpses of Occultism by C.W. Leadbeater Clairvoyance Scandalous Misuse of It Thought-Forms The Work of the Thought-Form Helpful Thought Sensitiveness Inharmonious Vibrations CHAPTER X Vegetarianism and Occultism Selfish Reasons in Favour of Decent Food We Want the Best More Natural to Man Greater Strength Less Animal Passion Economy The Degradation of the Slaughterman Occult Reasons Impure Vehicles Man’s Duty Towards Nature The Better Time to Come CHAPTER XI How To Build Character The Average Irresponsible Vacuity Conversion Puritanism The Awakening Sabba Papassa Akaranam Astral Disturbance Conceit and Prejudice Kusalassa Upasampada The Foolishness of Taking Offence Page 5 Some Glimpses of Occultism by C.W. Leadbeater The Evil of Unnecessary Agitation Courage and Resolution The Greatest Need of All Single-mindedness Sachitta Pariyodapanam No Morbid Introspection CHAPTER XII The Future of Humanity The Condition of Religion Social Conditions The Work of Theosophy Its Work in the East The Two Great Churches of Buddhism The Lessons to Be Learned The Preparation of Our Future Development Must Come The Remoter Future The Effect of Astral Development The Faculty of the Mental Plane Still Higher Possibilities CHAPTER XIII Theosophy In Every-day Life The Sense of Proportion Justice and Perspective A Dark Saying The Balancing of Good and Evil The Explanation of the Text The Destruction of Fear The Apotheosis of Common-sense No Religious Worries The Certainty of Evolution Page 6 Some Glimpses of Occultism by C.W. Leadbeater Our Attitude Towards Humanity Thought-Control CHAPTER XIV The Gospel of Wisdom INDEX Page 7 Some Glimpses of Occultism by C.W. Leadbeater SOME GLIMPSES OF OCCULTISM The Convention of the American Section of the Theosophical Society at Chicago, Illinois, in September, 1902, at which I had the privilege of being present, was for me the starting-point of a two years’ lecturing tour throughout the United States in the interests of that Section of the Society – a tour patiently and laboriously planned and worked out down to the minutest detail with loving and painstaking care by its late and indefatigable General Secretary, Mr. Alexander Fullerton. It was determined that before visiting the Branches in the far West I should spend six months in Chicago, delivering a course of twenty-six lectures in Steinway Hall on the Sunday evenings, and speaking at the Branch meetings during the week. This course of lectures was designed to put before the public in broad outline some of the principal teachings of Theosophy, and also to help men to realize something of its scope and comprehensiveness by showing how wonderfully all else is included in it – how it is the mighty truth underlying all systems of religious thought, even those which differ as much on the physical plane as do Buddhism, Christianity and the Ancient Mysteries, and how also it offers the only rational and coherent explanation of the (Page 10) phenomena connected with clairvoyance, telepathy, mesmerism, spiritualism, dreams and apparitions. The titles of the lectures were as follows: List of Subjects 1902 1. October 5. Man and His Bodies 2. October 12. The Necessity of Reincarnation 3. October 19. The Law of Cause and Effect 4. October 26 Life After Death – Purgatory 5. November 2. Life After Death – Heaven 6. November 9. The Nature of Theosophical Proof 7. November 16. Telepathy and Mind Cure 8. November 23. Invisible Helpers 9. November 30. Clairvoyance – What it is 10. December 7. Clairvoyance – In Space 11. December 14. Clairvoyance – In Time 12. December 21. Clairvoyance – How it is Developed 13. December 28. Theosophy and Christianity Page 8 Some Glimpses of Occultism by C.W. Leadbeater 1903 14. January 4. Ancient and Modern Buddhism 15. January 11. Theosophy and Spiritualism 16. January 18. The Rationale of Apparitions 17. January 25. Dreams 18. February 1. The Rationale of Mesmerism 19. February 8. Magic, White and Black 20. February 15. Use and Abuse of Psychic Powers 21. February 22. The Ancient Mysteries 22. March 1. Vegetarianism and Occultism 23. March 8. The Birth and Growth of the Soul 24. March 15. How to Build Character 25. March 22. Theosophy in Every-day Life 26. March 29. The Future that awaits us Page 9 Some Glimpses of Occultism by C.W. Leadbeater CHAPTER I Introductory (Page 11)The Other Side of Death. The lecture on Invisible Helpers, the four upon Clairvoyance, and that upon Dreams are fully represented by books of my own already published, and bearing the same titles as the lectures. Nos. 1 to 7 inclusive have also been published in pamphlet form. The remainder appear in this book, with the exception of No. 23, which was practically an epitome of certain chapters from Man Visible and Invisible and The Christian Creed, and dealt briefly with a subject which is fully and ably treated by Mrs. Besant in The Birth and Evolution of the Soul. No. 18 is presentation of its subject largely summarized from Mr. A.P.Sinnett’s book of the same name, to which readers should turn for further particulars. The course of lectures as a whole offered a popular and necessarily somewhat superficial exposition from the Theosophical standpoint of most of the manifestations of occultism known to the Western world at the present day, and it gave also a few glimpses into the fuller and more perfect manifestations which were current two thousand years ago. It seems to me, therefore, that these lectures may perhaps be of some use to our members, as offering them a starting point for their thought along all these various lines, and it is with that hope that I am putting them before our Society in this form. They appear here almost as they were delivered, except that, now they are all brought together, some repetitions are excised, and a few quotations are given more fully than in the original lecture. I have made no attempt to recast them from the lecture style into the essay style, as that would have needed far more time than can be given during a somewhat arduous tour, and would therefore have indefinitely delayed their appearance in print. (Page 12) The lecture on The Unseen World was delivered during a previous visit to Chicago, but it is included here because it is to some extent a synthesis of some of those earlier lectures of the series which are fully published elsewhere, and so it serves as a useful introduction to many of those that follow it. The Gospel of Wisdom was delivered in connection with the Convention to which I have previously referred, before the first lecture of this series; but I have placed it at the end, instead of at the beginning, because it seems to fall naturally into place there, and concludes my book with the strong assertion of a fact whose proclamation I believe to be one great part of the mission of Theosophy to the Western world – the mighty truth that all things are working together for the final good of all, that the great Divine Father means us to be happy, and that we shall be so in proportion to our knowledge of His will and our glad co- operation with its action.(Page 13) Page 10 Some Glimpses of Occultism by C.W.